On Disk scheduler fails without explanation

[AndrewW]

I am seeing some strange things happening with the Alteryx Scheduler, which always fails without explanation when I run 'on disk'. To begin I'll explain my set up:

• I'm using 10.1
• Server/Scheduler is set up on a Virtual Machine
• I login to the virtual machine using a service account
• The service account is also set up in the System Settings as Run the Worker as a Different User
• I can run the workflow on the VM manually while logged in as the service account
• I can run the workflow in the Scheduler DB
• I can't run the workflow on disk - it errors
• The workflow I'm trying to schedule has no references to any network drives and no macros, only the local machine is referenced
• Sadly I can't upload pictures into this forum to show the results (Idea was raised in the forum improvements area), however they're similar to what is shown at this discussion with a few differences: http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Setup-Configuration/Scheduler-Results-Status-Corrupted/td-p/8475
  • Mine doesn't report Corrupted, it reports Error - VM Name
  • It is scheduled by the service account
  • The date completed is also January 01, 0001 12:00:00 AM
• When I click on the Output of the scheduler results it gives no information, there are 2 messages:
  • Started running at
  • Finished running in 0.0 seconds

Anyone have any ideas how I can rectify this?

Note I'm developing in an enterprise environment, it is a requirement to schedule workflows on disk.

[AndrewW · Accepted solution]

I think I've found the problem that was preventing the workflow from running 'On Disk'. The file path of the workflow was D:\0Alteryx\...\workflow.yxmd. What I've discovered is if the first folder in the directory was renamed, removing the 0 at the start the workflow will then run 'On Disk'.

Therefore I can only assume a workflow can't be scheduled 'on disk' if the name of the first folder in the directory begins with a digit.

If anyone else out there is using the scheduler it would be interesting if you could test this, renaming the first folder in your directory with a number and see if you can schedule the workflow 'on disk'.

[RodL]

Andrew,

I took a working workflow and copied it to a folder called Test. I then ran it successfully through the Scheduler using the 'on disk' option.

I then renamed the folder to 0Test (which made it the first folder in my directory) and reran it successfully. So unfortunately not able to duplicate your issue.

Rod

[AndrewW]

Thanks for trying Rod, the mystery deepens if the numberic folder root doesn't cause an issue for you. I've attached screenshots (in a word doc has I can't upload images) of running the same workflow, once with the folder root of 000 and again with a folder root of aaa. The numeric fails (or doesn't actually get picked up at all, it doesn't report failure), the letters runs without problem.

Note a colleague working from a different server on a different machine as a different user trialled the numberic root folder and it caused the same failure I'm seeing.

As well as the test of a 'real world' workflow, which is in the attached Word doc, I also tried an even simpler workflow, single cell text input followed by browse tool. That did the same as above, a fail in folder 000.

[RodL]

You might want to contact Alteryx Support to see if they can assist in diagnosing the issue. 

[AndrewW]

For closure on this Client Services have added it to the defects backlog and will fix in a later release.

[EArcher]

Hi Andrew,

Did Client Service ever determine what was causing the issue?  I am having a very similar problem except mine is saying "corrupt" in the status.  Same setup and it works when copying the job to the scheduler DB as well.

[TaraM]

@EArcher - In this case the culprit was the folder name with a digit and we created a Knowledgebase article describing the issue and how to work around it. If following the instructions does not resolve your issue, I suggest contacting support (http://www.alteryx.com/support) or posting your specific issue in a new thread.

[AndrewW]

Great internal comms Alteryx staff :-)

Yes, a defect was raised and an article written already explaining the issue.

[mbarone]

I am having this same issue.  My folder is "M:\Flex_Errors\Weekly_Export".  Anyone know what the root cause was aside from the foler having a number since this is not the case for me?

Thanks.